Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-24
PROHIBITION.
F" Go to the Fountain Head and Cut OF
the Supply

the supply"
/ Again was the Metropolitan Theater
crowded last night to hear R. T. Booth
lecture On prohibition. In addition to the
regular choir and chorus, an excellent
quartet assisted in the musical portion of
| the programme. Rev. DIR. Frost opened
| the meeting with short address.
in which he stated that during the day
some of the pastors called at a large num-
Der of saloons and the proprietors, in
nearly every instance, accepted the invita-
ton TO be present tonight, and he believed
| that fully fifty of those engaged in the
liquor traffic, who were men of their word,
would be in attendance. One evidence of
the good work that was being accomplished,
he said, was the fact that the saloon-keep-
ers were complaining of the large decrease
in their receipts. He was creditably in
formed that one of the largest saloons in
the city on Tuesday only took in 20 cents
between P. NJ. and midnight Applause.
Mr.. Booth delivered one of the very best
lectures OF his entire series, so replete with
wit and good humor that fully half the
time he had the audience convulsed in
laughter. He compared rum selling to the
deadly upas tree.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC WAS on TRIAL TO-DAY
Throughout the civilized world, and they
who manufacture and sell it must put in
their defense. Ten days had he labored
with this people and against King Alcohol,
and he asked if he had made out a case
against strong drink. [Cries from the au-
dience of YES! yes r'] Have you been
convinced that the world would be happier
and better without strong drink? Abraham
Lincoln once said it strained man ter
ribly to kick at nothing" After all has
been said that can be said in favor of the
liquor traffic there is absolutely nothing to
answer. So utterly indefensible is their
case that but few men who are in the bust
ness will undertake to try to defend it.
The rumseller calls the temperance advo
cate a fanatic. George Washington was
called fanatic until they changed it to
the Father of his Country" They call
us fanatics because we do not believe as
they do. Moral persuasion does good but
it will never reform the world. While we
are pulling them out and saving them the
saloon-keeper is keeping up the supply by
chucking them in farther up the stream.
We must have prohibition, in other words,
we must
co TO THE FOUNTAIN HEAD
And cut off the supply. The speaker re-
lated pathetic story of q scene in the
drunkards Court at Edinburgh, where the
drunken father paid his fifteen shillings
fine while his wife and little ones stood
outside, half clad and half famished. He
said it was burning shame for any coun-
try to license a business to make father
drunk, when drunk arrest him. and then
fitch from the wretch the few pennies the
saloon-keeper failed to take from him.
[Applause.] This liquor traffic sanctioned
by law, licensed iniquity, neutraizes the
sermons that are preached, the influences
the mother, the advice of the father, the
pleadings of the sister; disgraces ruins,
destroys every spark of manhood, and laws
low in the drunkard's grave what other
wise might have been an honored and a
useful man. What are you going to do
with all the rum-sellers when you take
away their business? is a question often
asked. My answer is this, and it is the an
swer of every freeman: would have them
go out and go to work and earn an honest
living by the sweat of their brow. Let
them go to work honestly, and they will
get that compensation that is the reward of
all honest labor. Applause In due sea-
son we shall reap our reward, if we faint
not. We must forward march, and where
the vanguard halts to-day the rear shall
camp tomorrow. This world is growing
better, and hope makes the heart lighter.
Tonight the lecture will be to the saloon
keepers. At the close of the lecture 50
pledges were signed and 81 blue ribbons
given out. Score to date: Ribbons, 2,0f3
pledpes 636